Middletown zoning board approves housing in commercial zone

Published 5:33 pm, Monday, September 15, 2014

The Middletown Planning and Zoning Commission is shown in this file photo.

The Middletown Planning and Zoning Commission is shown in this file photo.

Photo: Alex Gecan - The Middletown Press File Photo

Middletown zoning board approves housing in commercial zone

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MIDDLETOWN >> A city developer has won a zoning decision that may allow him to turn a parcel in a formerly all-commercial zone into residential units.

S&G Holdings, a limited liability corporation that owns 38 Ward St., got permission Sept. 10 from the city zoning board to build transitional development housing in the city’s B-2 zones.

Though it provides for residential uses in a previously commercial zone, the new text prohibits residential redevelopment on parcels that front state highway and lots that are larger than 12 acres or smaller than one acre.

According to draft minutes of the meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted five to two to allow the exception, with Jeremy Clark and Vincent Szynkowicz dissenting.

Vice Chairwoman Molly Salafia, who was out of town and unable to return in time for the meeting, raised objections to the text amendment and the vote that passed it.

Transitional development housing, she indicated, called to mind “transitional housing,” a term used by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to describe halfway-type temporary housing.

“It creates a multitude of issues now,” said Salafia. “The word ‘development’ doesn’t really make a difference … to try and say that it’s a design style, urban housing, is completely false.”

Michael Dowley, an attorney for S&G, disagreed.

“It’s a normal term in planning,” said Dowley. “It’s an easy thing to understand.”

“They’re two totally different animals,” said Dowley. “The focus is in transitioning from one zone to another … to me, it’s the perfect word for what we’re trying to do. We’re transitioning from one zone to another and we’re trying to make the area better for both businesses and residences.”

Wackers said that, if there were any ambiguity, the remedy was “for the commission to add a definition for what transitional housing is, but that’s something for the commission to debate.”

Salafia also called into question the members who voted on the proposal, arguing that Chairman Daniel Russo had sat alternates out of order. The commission’s bylaws require the chair to seat alternates in alphabetical order but, if an alternate sits for or is absent from a meeting, his or her name goes to the bottom of the rotation.

Russo seated Pessina to fill Salafia’s absence. Salafia argued that Pessina’s absence from the Aug. 27 meeting should have precluded his participation in the Sept. 10 meeting.

Commission minutes indicate that both Pessina and Robert Blanchard, another alternate, were absent on Aug. 27. Elizabeth Emery, the third alternate, sat for Jeremy Clark at that meeting.

Wackers recounted in an email to commissioners that Blanchard had also been the last alternate seated before Emery’s turn on Aug. 27. “I still believe that … Phil Pessina was properly seated, because the bylaws for seating an alternate were complied with,” wrote Wackers.

The commission also continued two public hearings until its next meeting, scheduled for Sept. 24.

The zoning board will reconsider an application from Joshua Eddinger, who is seeking a special exception to build a greenhouse larger than 5,000 square feet at 359 Chamberlain Road. Several neighbors, concerned about possible pollution and other issues, posited objections to a new greenhouse.

Paolo Caracoglia will also renew his proposal to turn a two-family unit at 157 Hunting Hill Ave. into a three-family unit. According to Wednesday’s minutes, Wackers said Caracoglia had yet to submit preliminary drawings from a registered architect.